"While" As Part Of Speech?

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I am reading a grammer book by "wren and martin" and come accross an example about part of speech

"Sit down and rest a while"

as per this book 'while' is used here as a noun, But i am not able to understand how? as noun is "Name of place, person, or thing"

Can someone clear my doubts ?

Thanks for your help.
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The 'thing' that it is a name of is a duration of time. In that definition 'thing' needs to be understood very broadly.

Besides, it's a while, and only a noun can have an article in front of it, so while has to be a noun there.

CJ
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Committee is a noun. Who said it was a preposition?
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Very well explained CJ.

thanks.
Thank You for the explanation. It was helpful
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He is on the committee. How come its a preposition. It should be a collective noun right. "comittee'
 fivejedjon's reply was promoted to an answer.
Thanks for the explanation
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While is adverb
Because noun takes article.so while is used as a noun there
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